countries like greece, spain and italy have been tackling their problems with sharp cuts in spending and higher taxes and that's been fueling recession and unrest. meanwhile, we now know that japan officially slipped into its own recession over the summer with the japanese economy contracting 3.5% between july and september. now, the previous quarter, the previous three months number was also revised lower and that makes for two consecutive quarters of negative growth and that's the classic definition of a recession. from asia, back to america, literally, a group of chinese investors agreed today to buy an 80% stake in aig's aircraft leasing business. back in 2008, the insurance giant was bailed out by the u.s. government to the tune of $180 billion. four years on, still paying back the money by selling off assets including the aircraft leasing unit that complemented aig's airplane insurance business. if u.s. regulators apro s appro deal, it will be one of the largest ever by chinese investors. china's state owned oil giant c-nook swooped in to acquire nexen for a cool $15 billion. n